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Sunday, 15 July 2012

3 Reasons to get excited for The Dark Knight Rises

With the U.K release of The Dark Knight Rises only five days away, I thought it fitting to make a list of the main reasons I'm looking forward to it so much. This list won't contain any spoilers, anything related to the plot is all speculation, speculation based on already existing press releases; however, if you're someone who likes to avoid trailers, articles and press releases at all costs, then I'd advise proceeding with caution, as I'm sure a lot of the news surrounding the film will be discussed! So, without further ado, here are my reasons:

1. BAT-BREAKER First and foremost, Bane. Let's be honest, when we first saw the photos, whether they were the on-set spy pics, or the officially released promo photo, most of us weren't wowed. We were confused. Confused as to why a small bald man in a gas mask and fur coat was obscuring our view of the hulking, venom infused villain. Luckily that feeling, for a lot of people (myself included) only lasted for about two minutes, when we remembered that in the Nolan-verse a huge tank of a man with green veins and a slightly smaller tank hooked to his back would look, well, less than credible to say the least. We then remembered that this was Tom Hardy under the Direction of Christopher Nolan, which should, hopefully equal many movie moments to rival any of the past Batman films, Nolan's included. We then saw the trailers, and we were reassured further (well, most of us) that brilliance would indeed be gracing our cinema screens on July 20th; everything about Hardy's Bane is menacing, the movement, the voice, the appearance, hopefully though the size hasn't transferred from page to screen (he's still pretty big!), the menace has!

See... menacing!

2. CAT-BURGLAR Many people were also a bit concerned when hearing that Anne Hathaway had been cast as the seductive Selina Kyle/Catwoman. I will confess to thinking that she didn't fit the part, and didn't think (in the early trailers at least) that she looked playful enough to be Catwoman, and thought she was just bought in for eye-candy. Well it seems like my fears have been laid to rest, upon seeing the new trailers, the MTV Movie Awards one especially, I'm a lot more confident in the casting choice, and the overall characterisation they chose for Catwoman in this film. It seems that with every trailer I see she seems more and more like the fierce feline enthusiast that we know and love from the comics (my cheesy Stan Lee worthy alliteration aside!). An anecdote I heard Hathaway tell in an interview put me at ease further; apparently, when Nolan first called her to talk about the film, she thought she was up for the part of Harley Quinn (the jokers crazed former Psychiatrist-come-girlfriend-come-henchwench), so she prepared, and I paraphrase "a Harley-esque skip and a giggle". Now that to me says she must know something about the comics to some degree, however little, and that she had prepared for a role she wasn't even sure existed shows she's committed! While people are still unhappy with the costume, I think it's still better than the old Michelle Pfieffer one (not that I was unhappy with that one!). It's more comic accurate at least.

3. GOTHAM LET LOOSE The scaleis much grander than the previous films (hopefully not too big), not in the sense that Batman decides to globe-trot to Tokyo, like he did in the last film, but by the look of it, there's going to be an epic battle in the street, which Christopher Nolan said used thousands of extras, just in that one scene. He says (and again I'm paraphrasing) that this instalment goes back to the more romantic way of shooting grand set pieces etc, like they would in old sword and sandal movies, as that is something he finds very attractive in film making. This is surely the biggest film Nolan has made, and potentially the best and most successful, let's hope he can pull it off, as the stakes have never been higher, both in the film, and for Nolan himself!

WHAT AM I NERVOUS ABOUT?The Bat. Otherwise known as the Bat-plane. It could look great, it could look silly, only time will tell.